It is common for an enterprise to use a service provider to host computer resources, such as servers, applications and desktops. Typically, the service provider has multiple computers, each of which is running one or more virtual machines. A virtual machine may host, for example, a server, or an application, or an entire desktop. An enterprise may have a service provider host many virtual machines.
In order to integrate a hosted desktop within an enterprise, the hosted desktop is assigned a network address that is consistent with the network addressing plan within the enterprise. In other words, the enterprise specifies the addresses of desktops that are hosted within a service provider; the service provider does not dictate the desktop addressing plan to the enterprise. To host an enterprise's desktops, the service provider communicates directly with agent software in the hosted desktop. In other words, the service provider uses the address space specified by the enterprise, and works within the enterprise's existing addressing plan.
Because of the Internet's limited address space, it is highly probably that large enterprises are using a private address space (as defined in RFC 1918) for internal addressing requirements. Further, it is highly probably that different enterprises are using the same private address ranges. (e.g., two enterprises may both address themselves using 192.168.0.0/16.). As a result, a service provider generally segregates resources for each enterprise that it hosts. In particular, each host machine is allocated statically to a single tenant.